In todays news...

[Wossname]

£20 check up with x-rays, fillings about £12
Root canal was about £40

No. Can’t believe it, unless you’re talking 1960. Those are crazy prices. I’m with an NHS dentist, lucky me, and my recent trip to the hygienist cost me £58. So your prices up there seem…..”Unrealistic”.

[Skub]

£20 check up with x-rays, fillings about £12
Root canal was about £40

No. Can’t believe it, unless you’re talking 1960. Those are crazy prices. I’m with an NHS dentist, lucky me, and my recent trip to the hygienist cost me £58. So your prices up there seem…..”Unrealistic”.

Weeksy's bills are more or less the same money we pay.

[Dodgy69]

Had my last NHS dental check up last week, £25.80

[demographic]

Speaking of the NHS, the junior doctors want a 35% pay rise, which even SKS says is unaffordable. What planet are they on ffs.

I listened to some representative on TV this morning saying the additional 3.5% on top of the offered (?) 8% is unacceptable so the strikes will go ahead. She then added there will be no break in service? WTF, I thought you were all over worked and couldn't cope, but now you can take multiple days off with no disruption to service. When questioned why one hospital would be shutting A&E she said it was just safety measures and good planning! Really! its obviously because no one will be there as they are all striking!

They are underpaid, but striking for a 35% raise in this economic climate will do little more than alienate their supporters.

So after they do five years in medical college, take on ￡100,000 worth of debt you begrudge em about ￡19 an hour? They're currently on about ￡14

Fuck me, thats harsh. What do you earn an hour? Worth more than a junior doctor?

[Taipan]

Speaking of the NHS, the junior doctors want a 35% pay rise, which even SKS says is unaffordable. What planet are they on ffs.

I listened to some representative on TV this morning saying the additional 3.5% on top of the offered (?) 8% is unacceptable so the strikes will go ahead. She then added there will be no break in service? WTF, I thought you were all over worked and couldn't cope, but now you can take multiple days off with no disruption to service. When questioned why one hospital would be shutting A&E she said it was just safety measures and good planning! Really! its obviously because no one will be there as they are all striking!

They are underpaid, but striking for a 35% raise in this economic climate will do little more than alienate their supporters.

So after they do five years in medical college, take on ￡100,000 worth of debt you begrudge em about ￡19 an hour? They're currently on about ￡14

Fuck me, thats harsh. What do you earn an hour? Worth more than a junior doctor?

I said they are underpaid, and agree with them they should be paid more, but striking for an unrealistic amount which leaves people in pain and risks lives is out and out wrong and at odds with their professional mandate. That isn't harsh its reality and its not like the salary wasn't known when starting out on their medical career and lets be fair, its pay back up the line ten fold. Since you ask, using their inflation based metrics, i'm about 25% underpaid in real terms.

[Mussels]

So after they do five years in medical college, take on ￡100,000 worth of debt you begrudge em about ￡19 an hour? They're currently on about ￡14

Fuck me, thats harsh. What do you earn an hour? Worth more than a junior doctor?

Meh, even worse degrees are available.
£14 an hour is only for the most junior of doctors, ones still on rotation so could well be called trainees.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Just be sure to never complain about not being able to get a doctor's appointment eh?

[Taipan]

Just be sure to never complain about not being able to get a doctor's appointment eh?

S'funny, but my friends that work in the local hospital (mostly) blame GPs for A&E queues and wont be dissuaded on that, but when I needed to see a Doctor recently I found its never been easier! Log onto E-Consult, describe the problem, then surgery calls back with an appointment time (for 2 days later). Emergency appointments are first come first served by ringing or queueing at surgery from 8am, which apparently is manic.

So I do wonder if a lot of people are missing out if they aren't tech savvy enough to use things like E-Consult? My elderly rellys certainly wouldn't be able to use it. Its a pretty inappropriate system if that is the case and with our local surgeries it looks like it is...

[MrLongbeard]

So I do wonder if a lot of people are missing out if they aren't tech savvy enough to use things like E-Consult?

Never heard of it, wanders off to check Google, clickety click, "It doesn't look like this practice offers eConsult" oh that'd be why.
Although to be fair I've never not been able to get in when I needed to, and they spend as more time chasing me to come in than I do them.

[Taipan]

So I do wonder if a lot of people are missing out if they aren't tech savvy enough to use things like E-Consult?

Never heard of it, wanders off to check Google, clickety click, "It doesn't look like this practice offers eConsult" oh that'd be why.
Although to be fair I've never not been able to get in when I needed to, and they spend as more time chasing me to come in than I do them.

I'd never heard of it until the other day either. Apparently, its "widely used" in my locale but I've no idea about elsewhere? Anyway, don't you live out in the sticks somewhere? Your Doctor probably does house calls on a bicycle still...

I'm guessing it grew out of the covid lockdown period? In case no one else has heard of it...

"eConsult - Online Consultation
What is eConsult?
eConsult enables NHS based GP practices to offer online consultations to their patients. This allows patients to submit their symptoms or requests to their own GP electronically, and offers around the clock NHS self-help information, signposting to services, and a symptom checker.

eConsult is the most widely used digital triage tool in NHS primary care, built by NHS GPs for NHS patients, designed to enhance patient access, improve practice efficiencies and signpost patients to the right place at the right time for their care".

[MrLongbeard]

I'd never heard of it until the other day either. Apparently, its "widely used" in my locale but I've no idea about elsewhere? Anyway, don't you live out in the sticks somewhere? Your Doctor probably does house calls on a bicycle still...

I do, and they don't, it's only a five minute walk

[Noggin]

Part of the issue for GPs and hospitals is that the general pubic can't take responsibility for themselves!! You don't need a GP or A&E for something trivial/simple - and a lot of that could be sorted by going to a pharmacist for advice!!!

I do know that some bad things start with trivial, but again, a pharmacist could easily help work out if you NEED A&E or a GP or just something over the counter!

Equally, some of us go the other way and I've had to be forced to go to A&E at times when I thought it was something simple that would just sort itself out! LOL

But the average general public really can be thick as soup sometimes and is very responsible for some of the queuing/waiting times

[cheb]

My plan for funding the NHS: A royalty levied every time the phrase 'Before doing <trivial activity> consult your GP' is used. £0.10 per use should cover it.

[ZRX61]

Part of the issue for GPs and hospitals is that the general pubic can't take responsibility for themselves!! You don't need a GP or A&E for something trivial/simple - and a lot of that could be sorted by going to a pharmacist for advice!!!

Over here we have pharmacists disagree with a Dr about what should be prescribed & refuse to fill prescriptions. Happened to me twice, once for pain meds (trapped nerve), once for antibiotics (dental abscess).

[JamJar]

Part of the issue for GPs and hospitals is that the general pubic can't take responsibility for themselves!! You don't need a GP or A&E for something trivial/simple - and a lot of that could be sorted by going to a pharmacist for advice!!!

Over here we have pharmacists disagree with a Dr about what should be prescribed & refuse to fill prescriptions. Happened to me twice, once for pain meds (trapped nerve), once for antibiotics (dental abscess).

But that is a good thing surely, it's a pharmacists job to know what medication is best for something.

[Mr. Dazzle]

E-consult isn't available to me.

There is some other system supposedly available but its never online. Last time I tried to get an NHS GP appointment I was on hold for a total of 6 hours over 3 days, all the while listening to the automated "have you tries using our (non functional) online service" message

TBF even the docs realise that's ^^^ shit cause their CEO recently sent an apology email to all patients.

Vitality GP get you a spot within the hour IME.

[Count Steer]

I have to say, every time I/we really, really needed the local GP services in recent years they've been brilliant. Yes, we had to go through the telephone triage thing or pitch up at the front desk, but once they knew it was serious they really got into gear. I suppose they have to deal with so much non-serious stuff (as I've witnessed at the front desk) they have to have some serious filtering. (Ditto with A&E - but it helps if you turn up with a letter from the GP because the filtering has been done).
It's odd that we expect GPs to be experts on everything, including pharmaceuticals. I'm happier with one that says 'you need to see an expert' and if you have a good pharmacist they'll often know more about what you shouldn't take with what than the GP so I'd be quite happy with a pharmacy that questions a prescription.

[Mr Moofo]

Just be sure to never complain about not being able to get a doctor's appointment eh?

Because most GPs get paid 130k plus in the UK!
(in Germany , when I was there, a GP was paid about 85k)

Most GPs are electing to do maximum part time - which means they are still salaried at NHS rates to about 70K. And then they had private surgeries doing other stuff more lucrative in the rest of their time.
Junior Drs never have been paid well - but it is the entry point to becoming a consultant / GP etc.
But 35% is not going to happened. And then the back log that will result means that operations are being cancelled again, the death rate from cancer in the UK is already woeful and will get worse.
And then consultants are being paid to cover the junior doctors at rates of 3-5k per shift.
Go figure why the NHS thinks it's underfunded ....

[Mr. Dazzle]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67663128

I mean....fair play to the lad Sounds like the sort of thing you'd see in a movie and call bollox.

The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

[ChrisW]

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

“I once saw him kill three men in a bar... with a pencil.”